Sunita Narain: Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Director General
Began career as research assistant, was appointed deputy director in 1993 and in 2000 took over as its director and in 2011 took over as its director general . Has worked in various program units of the Centre involved in research, communication and advocacy on environmental issues. Has co-edited publications on the State of India’s Environment, conducted in-depth research on the governance and management of the country’s environment and directed campaigns on air pollution control, community water management and pesticide regulation.

Society for Environmental Communications
New Delhi

1992 to Present

Director and Publisher
Director and publisher of the fortnightly newsmagazine, Down To Earth. Has worked to launch and produce the newsmagazine that is widely considered as the best in the region.

Vikram Sarabhai Institute for Development Research
Ahmedabad

1980 - 1981

Research Assistant
Worked to research a publication on the state of environment of Gujarat and to organise a state level conference on the subject.

E D U C A T I O N

Graduated from University of Delhi (1983), India.

Doctor of Science (Honorary), Cranfield University, UK.

D.Sc. Degree (Honorary) University of Calcutta, India.

Doctor in Geosciences and Environment (Honorary), University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Doctor of Laws (Honorary), University of Alberta, Canada.

P U B L I C A T I O N S

Numerous articles in newspapers, magazines including a weekly/fortnightly/column on environment and development, Green Politics and Down To Earth for leading dailies. Also co-authored, co-edited the following publications:

Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain (editors) 1985, State of India’s Environment 1984-85: The Second Citizens’ Report, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi.

Centre for Science and Environment 1987, The Wrath of Nature: The impact of environmental destruction on floods and droughts, New Delhi.

Sunita Narain 2012, Excreta Matters, 7th State of India’s Environment: A Citizens’ Report, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi.

P O S I T I O N S H E L D

1990 -1999: Member, Grant in Aid Committee for assistance to voluntary agencies under the scheme of ‘Environmental Orientation to School Education’, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

1995 -1999: Member, National Standing Committee on Rural Technology of the Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology, Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment, Government of India.

1995 -1999: Member, Program Committee of the Urban Waste Expertise Program of WASTE Consultants set up to oversee the project by the Netherlands Ministry of Development Cooperation, Gouda.

1995: Member, Independent Expert Group on Global Forest Policy established by the Swiss and Peruvian governments, Geneva.

2012 – 2013: Member, Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) on issues relating to River Ganga, constituted by MoEF.

2012: Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India.

2013: Member - EAT (Stockholm Food Forum) Advisory Board, Oslo

M A J O R L E C T U R E S

1993: Public Debate with Hans Alders, Dutch Environment Minister organised by the Evert Vermeer Foundation of the Dutch Labour Party, The Hague, the Netherlands.

1995: Public Debate with Wolfgang Sachs, Chairperson, Greenpeace, Germany on “Towards Global Governance”, at the First Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Berlin, Germany.

1996: Public Debate with Andrew Steer, Director, Environment Department, World Bank, on Global Environmental Concerns – At whose expense? at the Head to Head Debate organised by the Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society, Oxford, UK.

1996: Publishing Environmental News: How do you support sustainable development, at the Workshop on Reporting for Sustainable Development in Asia Pacific organised by UNEP, Beijing, China.

1997: Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the World Trade Organisation at the Symposium on Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development, Organised by the World Trade Organisation, Switzerland.

1997: Environmental Security, plenary talk at the 1997 Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community, IIASA, Austria.

1997: How to build bridges between trade, environment and development to improve the effectiveness of global environmental policies at the Implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements: Ways and Means workshop organised by Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, The Netherlands.

1997: Sustainable development from the perspective of the South at the ‘Way out of the Growth Trap” Congress organised by the Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung, Germany.

1997: Government’s Agenda or Ours? The NGO Agenda in the forthcoming period at the workshop, Beyond Rio, organised by World Economy, Ecology and Development, Germany.

1998: NGO workshop on Emission Trading and Entitlements: organised by CSE and co-sponsored by German NGO FORUM, Stadthalle, Bonn, Germany.

1999: What possibilities there are for Green Politics in Asia and what is meant by Green Politics in the Asian context, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

1999: We all live downstream: Urban industrial growth and its impact on water systems; plenary lecture, 9th Stockholm Water Symposium, Sweden.

2000: The Future of India’s Urban Environment, paper presented at the Swedish-Asian Forum on the Future of Asia’s Environment, Stockholm 15-17, 2000.

2000: Lecture given to members of the US-India Roundtable on the issue of "Health and Environment" New York, America.

2002: “My Agenda for Johannesburg”, at the conference “ Countdown for Johannesburg” organized by the Heinrich- Boll Foundation.

2003: Lecture given at the 2nd International Symposium on ecological sanitation at Lubceck, Germany.

2003: Lecture on Human Health and Ecological Security organised by the Foundation for Ecological Security at the India International Centre, New Delhi.

2003: Foundation Day lecture given at the Ladakh Ecological Development Group at Leh, Ladakh.

2003: Keynote lecture at the International Conference on Public-Private Partnership organised by Swiss Coalition of Developing Organisations at Berne, Switzerland.

2003: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Diamond Jubilee lecture at the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India.

2003: Speech given at the Symposium on the Johannesburg Challenge: Perspectives and Priorities, Berlin, Germany, organised by the German Council of Sustainable Development.

2004: Lecture given as part of the Leaders in their field lecture series on ‘Urban life – a living hazard’ at the India Habitat Centre.

2004: Lecture at the Global Conscience on Simultaneous responsibility to the environment and poverty? Organised by the Ecological Council, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2004: Keynote lecture at the workshop on rainwater harvesting - How to make it a public movement organised by the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India.

2004: Inaugural address at the state level media seminar on rainwater harvesting organised by Jalanidhi and Press club at, Thiruvananthapuram, India.

2004: Lecture titled 'From Your Flush to the River: Delhi's responsibility for a clean Yamuna’ as part of the Agenda Delhi series of lectures organised by India Habitat Centre and Indian Express at the India Habitat Centre.

2005: Talk on ‘ Water conservation’ as part of Lecture series for Members of parliament, organised by Bureau of Parliamentary studies and Training, Lok Sabha Secretariat.

2006: Presentation on ‘How to Operationalise the agenda for Water Conservation’ at the meeting of Parliamentary forum on water conservation and management organized by Cell on Parliamentary Forum on Water Conservation and Management, Lok Sabha Secretariat.

2008: K.R. Narayanan oration on ‘Why Environmentalism Needs Equity: Learning From the Environmentalism of the Poor to Build Our Common Future, delivered at The Australian National University, Canberra.

2011: Speech on Climate Change: The challenge and opportunity for our world, delivered at Asian University for Women Symposium: Imagining Another Future for Asia: Ideas and Pathways for Change, held at Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 21-22, 2011.

2012: Lecture for the Technology Mission: War for Water – Our water-waste management imperative: The need for literacy, involvement and commitment to change at IIT-Guwahati on October 5, 2012.

2012: Public lecture on “Who speaks for water?” at University of Alberta, Canada, March 2012.

2014: 20th Annual Lecture on Energy and the Environment, University of California, Berkeley, April 2014.

A W A R D S & RECOGNITION

2002: Dr B.C. Deb Memorial Award for the popularisation of science by the Indian Science Congress Association, Calcutta.

About Sunita Narain

Anil Agarwal

Anil Kumar Agarwal was the founder-director of the Centre for Science and Environment, India’s leading environmental NGO. Agarwal spent his lifetime advocating policies that involve the people in natural resource management and learn from India’s own traditions.

We are pleased to invite you to “Understanding environmental issues for better reportage: A media briefing for regional journalists” which is being organised with Mohan Lal Sukhadia University in Udaipur.

About CSE

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi. CSE researches into, lobbies for and communicates the urgency of development that is both sustainable and equitable.